Bluff Creek — the Patterson–Gimlin film, 20 October 1967

OVERVIEW

The Patterson–Gimlin film was shot beside a tributary of the Klamath River, about 25 logging-road miles north-west of Orleans, California, in the Six Rivers National Forest. The film is 954 frames — 59.5 seconds at 16 frames a second — and, published in 1967 without a copyright notice, is in the public domain in the United States.

HISTORY

Roger Patterson became interested in Bigfoot after a 1959 True magazine article, visited Bluff Creek in 1962 and 1964, and self-published a book on the subject in 1966. In May–June 1967 he began a Bigfoot docudrama with friends including Bob Gimlin and Bob Heironimus. On the filmmakers' account, he and Gimlin filmed the figure on 20 October 1967; that evening they met Al Hodgson at his store in Willow Creek and Patterson arranged to ship the film. Patterson died in 1972 maintaining the creature was real; Gimlin has always denied any part in a hoax.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

DISPUTED. Defenders point to the subject's gait and to Patterson's call for a tracking dog the same day. Skeptics argue a suit was well within 1960s effects work; the anatomist John Napier thought the evidence pointed to a hoax of some kind but could not see a zipper. Gimlin told the BBC in 1999 that a hoax was possible but would have had to be planned by Patterson; the author Greg Long found circumstantial evidence of footprint and photo hoaxing by Patterson around Yakima. Some critics believe it was shot earlier than the stated date.

VISITING

National forest land reached by logging roads north of Orleans; the exact site was rediscovered only in 2011.